Have you hit 'reply all' by mistake? Sent a nasty response and then regretted it? Or simply sent a message and then remembered some piece of information or a question you left out?
(The last one happens to me several times a day!)
How do I avoid sending multiple emails on the same topic when that happens? Easy: I've configured my email to send and receive every five minutes.
That's five minutes to realize I might have hit 'reply all.' Or a five-minute cooling down period. (Some folks might need 10 minute intervals!) And it's five minutes for 'oh yeah, I needed to ask about XYZ too.'
How many of your emails need to be sent immediately? I'll bet they're the exception and not the rule. Therefore, it's no big deal to manually hit 'Send/Receive' in Microsoft Outlook from time to time when you need to send a message right away.
Change your email options in Outlook by clicking the 'Tools' menu. Select 'Options' and then click the 'Mail Setup' tab. You'll have to unclick the 'Send immediately when connected' button--that's actually the default setting for Outlook. Then click the 'Send/Receive' button to the right to specify how frequently you want your email sent.
I've been doing this for years and just told a few of my colleagues who loved the idea. I thought I'd share it here, because in my opinion, it's a 'best practice' when it comes to email. Do you have any tips for email communication to share?
